Beyond Asperdome: Urban Goliath

I suspect that those who were upset that a real estate agent and urban sprawl advocate became head of Winnipeg's Property Planning and Development department will also not be impressed that a Federal bean counter is now telling us where to build a new stadium.

Well, that's not exactly what's happening, but pretty close. The Polo Park location was the best part of the old deal. Now it appears that the Polo location is out of the picture because Vic Toews has made funding contingent on the stadium being in a downtown location. Now, if there were a logical place to put it near down town, then OK. But that's not the case. The options are:

• Point Douglas, where an under-sized stadium will be shoe-horned in between rail way tracks and the river, with only three small roads (including one that goes through a residential neighbourhood) available to carry traffic to and from the games
• South of the convention center, where an under-sized stadium will sit empty for 350* days a year, doing nothing to make downtown more vibrant.

My message to Vic:

Vic: let us put our damned stadium where we want to put the damned stadium. If you want to fund it, fine. Don't force us to compromise by squeezing in a stadium that's too small in a location where it's not appropriate. If you want to fund a 24,000 seat stadium, give the money to Halifax!

*it will be used more often if it is domed, but it won't be domed because that would be crazy expensive and would also involve a big payoff to True North/Chipman who have a negotiated monopoly on large indoor events in Winnipeg.

related commentary from the peanut gallery:
Policy Frog one and two
Progressive Graham
Marginalized Action Dino
The Hack
Pissing on the Stadium
Rise and Sprawl
did I miss you? Let me know.